Daniel P. Diaz

“I would say that in people’s general consciousness today, there are three dominant values that are presented in a mythical one-sidedness that puts moral reason at risk. These three are progress, science, and freedom.”
― Pope Benedict XVI, Values in a Time of Upheaval: Meeting the Challenges of the Future

“In many cases, perhaps in virtually all cases, a majority decision is the “most rational” way to achieve common solutions. But the majority cannot be an ultimate principle, since there are values that no majority is entitled to annul. It can never be right to kill innocent persons, and no power can make this legitimate. Here too, what is ultimately at stake is the defense of reason. Reason—that is, moral reason—is above the majority.”
― Pope Benedict XVI, Values in a Time of Upheaval: Meeting the Challenges of the Future

“It is not the task of the state to create mankind’s happiness, nor is it the task of the state to create new men. It is not the task of the state to change the world into a paradise—nor can it do so. If it tries, it abandons its own boundaries and posits itself as something absolute. It behaves as if it were God, and, as the Revelation of John shows, this makes it the beast from the abyss, the power of the Antichrist.”
― Pope Benedict XVI, Values in a Time of Upheaval: Meeting the Challenges of the Future

“The state is not itself the source of truth and morality. It cannot produce truth from its own self by means of an ideology based on people or race or class or some other entity. Nor can it produce truth via the majority. The state is not absolute.”
― Pope Benedict XVI, Values in a Time of Upheaval: Meeting the Challenges of the Future